Lessons Learned From the Teaching Hospital and the Medical Education Model

Abstract

The role of the teaching hospital in medical education may be a useful model to describe the potential role of the Professional Development School (PDS) for teacher education. For most of the past century, teaching hospitals have been the key clinical training site for medical students. These hospitals offer students exposure to a broad mix of medical conditions, patient care services, and practicing physicians as teachers. The relationships between medical schools and teaching hospitals have been well defined and recognized by accrediting bodies. This model contributes substantially to the status of the U.S. medical education system as one of the best in the world, emulated by many other countries. In this article we describe the evolution of this model, including recent calls for modifications to better match current concepts on physician training and societal health care needs. Lessons from the medical education experience that are relevant to the PDS model and the education of teachers are discussed.